


In The Strangest of Places

by officialarrow



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alcoholic Oliver and Felicity, Alternate Universe, F/M, Finding love in strange places, Rehab
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-08-23
Packaged: 2018-04-16 17:32:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,313
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4634046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/officialarrow/pseuds/officialarrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tragedy shook Oliver Queen to a life of drinking and bad choices. He gets sent to rehab, where he meets Felicity Smoak, a girl who has also been struck by tragedy. Together they discover new purposes and what truly comes after reaching the light at the end of the tunnel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	In The Strangest of Places

**In The Strangest of Places**

 

Oliver could hear the thundering sound of footsteps outside his office. The sun hit his face, and he could notice it even though his eyes were closed. He coughed from his soar throat as he opened his eyes as the sunlight burned into them. His head felt heavy as usual and his clothes from the previous day did not smell great.

“Jesus, dude, you need to get it together.” John Diggle, his bodyguard and best friend, walked into the office and Oliver sat up on his office sofa.

“Come on, man. I needed this. You know damn well why.” He was met with the usual stare from John, one that was a mix of pity and judgment. Sure, he understood that there were not merely any other looks left for him now. He understood that John was mad about this.

“Oliver, you’ve needed this for five months now.” The room fell silent for what seemed like several minutes. He stared up at John, who was cleaning up the bottle of Jack Daniel’s.

“I’m fine, John. It just makes it easier to sleep.” He rubbed his eyes and tried to straighten his tie, unsuccessfully.

“If you were drinking to make it easier to sleep, I wouldn’t find you like this in your office every morning. You need to go home.” He threw the bottle in the trash and looked at Oliver.

“I don’t want to go there.” He slumped back on the sofa and rubbed his sweaty and pale face. His slight stubble had transformed into a thick beard and his long and impressive silky hair he had been so known for had been shaved off completely.

“I know that since… what happened, you have had a problem going home. However, it seems to me that isn’t the only one of your problems.” He saw John noticing the white powder on his desk that he remembered he had been trying to hide, but now he could see he clearly hadn’t hidden good enough.

“I’m not taking this anymore Oliver.” John picked up the book it had been spread on and emptied it in the trash. He smashed the book back on his desk. “I’m done Oliver. I won’t stand here seeing you drink your life away in addition to throwing it away with drugs. I know you’re my boss, but right now you’re my best friend. And as _your_ best friend I am taking you to get help, either you like it or not. I know what happened was terrible and that you are hurting, but please, for the love of God, you _need_ to at least _try_ to move on and get help!” John was yelling at this point. His expression had changed into a worried one. He thought about it, getting help. He knew he had a problem, but he hadn’t cared. He didn’t have much of a purpose anymore. He was forty-three and alone. All he had was this company of his. He didn’t much care for that either. He kept driving forward in the tunnel, hoping that one day he would catch the light at the end.

“What about the company? I can’t just leave it?” His hands slumped sluggishly on his sides as he stared out the window and onto the city.

“I’ve already talked to Tommy, he’ll be happy to help. I think Laurel wants to help too.” John sat down on the sofa next to him.

“You told them?” Oliver wasn’t surprised. If John couldn’t handle it, he relied on Laurel and Tommy to do it. They were more persuasive than John. Perhaps it was because he had known them his entire life whilst he had only known John for a few years.

“I don’t think I had to, you showed up drunk at the Christmas party.” John started searching through his suit jacket as Oliver made a forced laugh. “I’ve found you a rehab facility you can stay at. It’s called Starling Rehab Center and it’s really fancy and all that. It’s a really great facility and I think you could get the help you need there.” He pulled out a piece of paper, and Oliver read it. He nodded as he read through the information. He needed help.

 

The rehab facility was really fancy. It looked really modern and it was clearly for the more financially stable people. He had gotten his own room, which looked really neat and simple, which was something he truly appreciated about it. The treatment center wasn’t filled up with scary-looking people; no, these were normal people who had lost their ways. Many of them didn’t look that great, but he was sure he didn’t look good right now either so he focused on imagining them the way they looked before their problems.

As the days passed by, he focused on fighting the occurring urge to drink and consume other stuff that would take some of the pain away. However, being stuck in a place like that limited his chances of consuming anything of those sorts.

Each day they would have a meeting, and each day he would hear a new story. Their stories were sad, and it didn’t really help him much. He knew that sharing was supposed to help, but he didn’t want to share anything.

“So today I’d like to hear some more stories.” Dr. Caitlin, one of the staff there was sitting in the ring they had formed. They were a lot of people, and that was why they only had time for some stories. Usually they would talk about other stuff that included everyone. “I think that Oliver Queen should tell us something today.” Dr. Caitlin looked at him and put her elbows on her  knees and her face lifted up by her hands.

“No, thank you. I’d rather not. I think most people knows what happened anyways.” He looked back at her, her face making a strange frown. He looked around in the room. While Dr. Caitlin continued asking someone else, he noticed a blonde girl staring at him. She was wearing glasses and she was _smiling_ at him. He had never felt so confused and mildly offended before. Who _smiled like that_ in this situation? Her hair was put up in a messy bun and her Ray Ban glasses teamed up with a blue Ralph Lauren shirt confirmed his suspicions about her being rich. She kept staring at him, and he kept staring back. Who was this girl? He could recognize a fair amount of these people since they were in the ‘rich club’ with him, but she was a complete stranger.

When the meeting was over he went out to the gardens to take a walk outside in the nice weather. He sat down by a fountain, looking at the beautiful garden while the water was running behind him. After a while he heard someone approaching him. When he opened his eyes he was staring right into the blonde girl’s eyes. She stood there, her eyes staring into his.

“Hello?” He tried talking, so that this would be a little less awkward.

“Hi.” She responded, her eyes not leaving him.

“Do you want to sit down?” He made a gesture with his hands, and she sat down on the fountain beside him.

“So you said that we all knew what happened to you but I don’t.” She started kicking her feet up and down as they sat on the ledge.

“Seriously?” He looked at her with confused eyes.

“I haven’t been paying attention to the media the last year.”

“Oh, well, you don’t want to know…” He started trailing off, but she corrected him.

“No, I want to know.” Her voice was persistent. It was so strange, it was like this girl wasn’t feeling sad or anything but cheery.

“Uh, alright then. Five months ago my wife Sara died. There was a horrible car accident, and I was supposed to take the same car as her, but before we were going to this charity event we had a big fight, and I took a separate car. When I got there I started to drink and I was having a good time, completely unaware that my wife was dying at that time. So I started drinking. At first it was because I needed to drink my guilt away, but then I started to _need_ it and it became a daily thing. Also, around a month ago I started doing cocaine because the alcohol wasn’t helping much.” It went silent for a while.

“I’m sorry.” It was all she said. He expected her to say something more, but she didn’t talk for a while.

“I didn’t catch your name.” He broke the ice a few minutes later.

“Felicity Smoak.” She answered, simply.

“So… What’s your story?” He looked at her, but her face wasn’t showing any sadness.

“Pretty similar to your story actually. ’Bout a year ago my boyfriend died, so I started drinking and doing drugs, even though I never actually enjoyed any of it. I’ve always been a good person who stayed away from those stuff, but I guess we change after experiencing losing someone.” He nodded, impressed by her words. “If you’re wondering, I’ve been here for a year so I’m all caught up with Dr. Caitlin’s way of talking.” She scooted a bit closer to him, which confused him.

“So how old are you?”

“Thirty-four. You?”

“Forty-three.”

“Wow, you don’t look that old. Well, the beard does give you that look in a kind of way.” He frowned, but she kept staring at her feet, which she was still swinging back and forth.

“Okay.” He chuckled.

“I got you to laugh.” She looked up at him, and he frowned. “It’s a good sign.”

He smiled, maybe because he believed that it was a good sign.

 

Weeks and months went by. Felicity Smoak was undoubtedly the most confusing and strange person he had met, but she was surprisingly easy to talk to. She made the whole rehab-thing more bearable. Rehab didn’t feel like a way of making everyone else feel better, it felt like a healing place. He had always known it was just a plan for the time being, but now it felt more like a step towards a new life.

“You know what my wife used to say?” They were sitting at their usual place by the fountain, enjoying the last days of the summer sun.

“No.” She answered, her eyes closed as she enjoyed the sun and kept swinging her feet.

“She was a big believer of living in the moment. She had this metaphor that life was like driving through a tunnel. Most people keep driving through it, hoping that they won’t reach the light at the end. Other people keep driving in hopes of reaching the light. My wife always said she was driving blind, not wanting to do either. You see, the light at the end is unknown to us. The ones that wishes they won’t reach it is afraid of it, because they don’t know what it is. It could be death, and that scares them. Then the ones that chase it wants to know what it is and aren’t afraid of dying. My wife didn’t want to be either, because she wanted to live while not being afraid of death.” He watched her feet swing back and forth.

“Wait, was there a reason behind this story?”

“Oh, yes. It seems that for those five months before I got here I was chasing the light at the end. I didn’t care if I reached it.” He looked into her eyes. “I want to thank you for showing me that I don’t have to chase the light anymore, that I can drive blind.”

She smiled, and it wasn’t that smile which he had seen the first time he had seen her in the meeting. It was a smile of warmth.

“You’re welcome. I think you have helped me a bit too. I thought that my love life died with my boyfriend, but it didn’t, because I love you. I know that’s weird and probably confusing and frustrating since your wife died too, but I don’t care. I want you to know that I love you. You can choose what happens from now on.” He blinked in surprise.

“I’m not frustrated. I miss my wife, but in some weird way my mind tells me that I love you too. I don’t really want to love anyone else other than my wife, or at least I did, but my body tells me that I want you and that it’s okay. I love you too, Felicity.”

“These past months have been the best months since he died.”

“Yeah, I feel the same.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

He leant in and placed a kiss on her mouth. She stilled in surprise, but his lips stayed on her soft lips until he felt her kiss him back. It didn’t really last long, and it was a shy kiss of uncertainty, but he knew it felt right. It felt wrong and right at the same time.

 

As time went by, he found that Felicity became his purpose. They both got released some time after that, and he didn’t look back. He remembered his wife and her memory, but he still moved forward like he imagined she would have wanted. When he thought back at his and Felicity’s story, he always laughed at how they got to love each other in that place. They grew to love each other in one of the strangest of places.

And in time he reached the light at the end of the tunnel. How wrong he had been about the light. It was not merely the end.

It was the start of something new, and something truly beautiful.


End file.
